During last winter~early spring's usual maintenance and small repair works to prepare the boat for the season, I started dreaming about how handy a self tacking jib would come in... I sail my 16 solo most of the time on a superb lake (Inawashiro) here in Japan. I never do any racing, so do not worry about this being class legal or not. Mainly made it for the fun of making it, and keeping me busy during the off season (5 months no sailing... sure you know the feeling). During the last weeks/months I have tested it under different conditions, and I'm quite enthousiastic about it, not just the self tacking, but evenly so the self jibing. I have kept all the original blocks and rails for the jib sheet routing (just in case it wouldn't function well), but so far don't wish to go back there.

So here's how I made it, easy to do, did not take much time nor costs,

Found an old parts boat where I could drill out the main traveller track from the rear cross beam. Kept the traveller car also. I then bought an "L" shaped aluminum profile (3meter long) at the local home centre. Couldn't find rivets with a flat head (all my rivets have a round head which would block the traveller car), so I used flat head stainless screws and nylock bolts to attach the traveller track to the aluminum bar. I kept the alu profile a few cm. longer than the traveller track on both sides, to put an "eye" bolt there. This serves both as a stopper for the traveller car and as a fairlead for the jib sheet. Next I cut this combo the desired lenght to attach it to the front crossbeam (corner casting to corner casting). Fixed it with 6mm stainless bolts and stainless rivets. From the same parts boat, I also recycled 2 swivel cam cleats. I riveted one on each side rail of the tramp frame, just behind the corner casting. These serve for controlling the jib sheet. To rout the jib sheet, I just needed a shackle large enough to attach 2 single blocks to the traveller car, the jib clew plate now only needs 1 single block. The jib sheet is routed in a loop, going from one swivel cam, through the "eye bolt fairlead", the first block on the traveller car, the jib clew block, the 2nd block on the traveller car, through the "eye bolt" on the opposed side, and finally the other swivel cam cleat. I then tie both ends of the sheet together, thus creating a closed loop (and serving as a stopper knot for the swivel cam cleat). This looped routing has the advantage of making it possible to control/adjust the jib sheet from both sides of the boat now. For controlling the position of the traveller car, I tie a seperate line to another "eye", bolted to the front side (exactely in the middle) of the aluminum bar/traveller track. Then pass this line through the traveller car (the same way we do for the main sheet/traveller), pull it through another eye I riveted on the cross beam, just under the mast step (this is not absolutely necesarry, it is also possible to pass the line behind the dolphin striker rod) and finally put it through the swivel cam on the front beam that was there originally for the jib sheet control. Another nice thing about this system is the full lenght of the traveller track (compared to existing self tacking jib systems seen on other cats), making it possible to travel out the jib all the way, for those of us who don't like pitching... And that's all... I'm afraid this explanation can be somehow confusing, but a few pictures could show how simple it really is. Only problem is that I'm an absolute digital zero, so I couldn't find out how to show pics on this forum... Anyone wanting pictures, please mail me at filip@kuijkenviolins.com , I have succeeded in mailing photos before... Now let's go sailing the next half of the season,

Front view of the set up, the red line is the traveler control line, the white/red line the jib sheet

Here's a detail of the jib sheet routing. The passage through the block between the swivel cam and the stopper/fairlead on the track is not really necessary, but since the block was there already, the line runs smoother passing through.

A closer look at both lines routing, you can see on all pics here that I tied the red traveler control line directely to the "eye" in the middle of the bar. During tacks and jibes sometimes it happened that the bowline knot stayed on the old side, making the car travelling a few cm. less. Lately I just passed the line through the eye, and the tied it to the dolphin striker rod. One could imagine an even more simple design, just drilling a hole through the aluminum bar, pulling the rope through and finish with a stopper knot.

Here you see the 3 blocks necessary. I would like a lower shackle to attach the 2 blocks on the traveler car, unfortunally, the ones I found large enough are all high (not that it's a big deal, but hope to change it later).

This one can show you the jib sheet is now controllable from both sides of the boat.

First I'd like to give a big thanks to Anton Largiader, for helping getting the pictures posted.

Next,@ Ronholm, You are right, the set up moved the jib blocks a few cm. more foreward. At first I beleived to compensate this by attaching the block on the jib clew plate to the lowest (most foreward) hole. This left the leach of the jib fluttering even more, so now I attach it to the most upper hole. This gives more tension on the leach, but still sometimes i'd like to have some more. This is why I'd like to change the shackle on the traveller car for a lower one someday. Next time out, I'd like to experiment with putting the jib just a few holes higher on the forestay chainplate, just to see if this tensions the sail more equally. It has to be said that my sails are pretty blown out, so I'm not too preoccupied by all this, it doesn't spoil the fun though,

That is a very cool modification. I have not sailed my boat much this year yet, but I have had a lot of fun, just changing things on it, and then seeing how the performance is. I might do that, for next years project. So keep this thread going.

Single handed is where it comes in handy indeed (guess there is no need for a self tacking jib when having a crew, unless you'r flying a genakker, but have no experience with that...) Actually I'm as happy with the self gybing capability as with the self tacking.

I do not have any detail pics of the connection of the track to the cross beam now. Hope to have some sailing time next weekend, do not have a digital camera so it will take some time before I can mail you some images. Beg your patience, untill then, I hope my description makes sense...

Actually, I did not attach/connect the track to the corner castings, it is bolted and rivetted to the front crossbeam. Having a round and curved crossbeam, there is not much touching surface with a straight traveller track (no place for mistakes...) Most important is a stainless 6 mm bolt and nut for the connection. Since there is no way to use a wrench inside the crossbeam without taking it apart from the cornercasting, I came up with the following: The 6mm bolt had a head of about 10mm (if I remember well), so I started by drilling a 10mm hole in the crossbeam on the right spot (think twice, measure twice, drill once), then just next (touching) to it ,I drilled a 6mm. hole. Next step was to file a "hole" or "path" between both holes. This makes it possible to insert the bolt, heads in shaft pointing out, to the 10mm hole, and move it sideways to slip the shaft into the 6mm slot. Do this on both sides of the crossbeam, and now you can mark where to drill a 6mm. hole in the aluminum bar. Once this is done, I used (not sure how you call those in English, sorry) the kind of open, twisted washers that act as a spring. The spring tension of the stainless version of these washers is sufficient to lock the nut without using a wrench on the bolthead (inside the crossbeam). Once both sides bolted, I was surprised how strong it was, but just to make sure, I found enough touching surface between the track and crossbeam to put a few stainless rivets (largest size I had in the toolbox), just in case. So far it has proven to be strong enough. While I was in the designing stage, I expected to have more flex, especially vertical, so I anticipated on having to attach one or two extra vertical supports between the track and crossbeam, but so far no need for that. Hope this helps, I could mail you hand drawings instead of pictures if you wish,

If you look at Sciatica, you will know that I'm for innovation. However, for me, even though I'm a predominately solo sailor, this takes something out of the sailing experience. I'm aware of this feature on the F18s but there's a lot more to deal with on an F18 than there is on a Hobie 16. Additionally, I need the timed control of the jib for tacking. Don't know how that would work but it might be an issue. To me, the solo tacking procedure on an H16 is just SEXY, almost as sexy as it is with a crew !!!

I love the innovation, but this one is just not for me. That doesn't mean I won't try it !!!

Mr.P,The traveller control line is routed through the swivel cam normally used for the jib sheet, so there is no problem pulling it in while sitting on the port side (you always adjust your jib sheet the other side of where you'r sitting, right?) Pulling in the traveller is no problem, releasing it sometimes needs some help (especially in lower winds), sometimes it's necesarry to sheet out the jib a few centimeters to help the traveller car move out those last centimeters, and then immediately pull the sheet back in (if desired). In really low wind, I sometimes have to adjust the traveller car by hand, mostely the same time as I have to help the jib moving to the other side of the mast because the battens are jamming things up... Since I installed this system last year, not once I thought about routing the jib sheet the old way (even not just for fun), to me it makes soloing so much easier. The only thing I changed at the beginning of this season is a lower shackle at the traveller car, and I took of the hook at the centre of the traveller rail where I tied the traveller control line, I drilled a hole in the middle and now just pull the traveller line through and put a stopper knot at the backside (as already I suggested in previous posts last year).

Had great fun already this year, let's enjoy the best of the season yet to come,